Digitial Camera

Cyrus

I need to get a new digital camera thats under $200.00 and has good quality pictures and video.

What do I look for in a good camera? I know its not the MegaPix because the camera I have now is 5.0MP but sucks. So, its gotta do with the quality of the lense. Any ideas? Thanks!

turbo

Think Panasonic.

Chi Meson

Can't go too wrong with Canon. Under $200, you'd be looking for a sale price but Canon lenses are second only to Leica.

Cyrus

I've seen lots of new cameras at best buy in the $150-180 range.


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1202648739174

See, thats $200.00, but whats the quality of this one. Whats better about the more expensive ones? What does one look for in a good camera?

montoyas7940

I second that...
I have an Canon S1-IS (3.2Mp). It is 4 years old and still kicking. My only complaint is the lens cap. It uses some kind of fuzzy friction fit and won't stay on.

Moonbear

I have an older model of that type of Canon (mine's the SD400 5MP one), and I think the photo quality is pretty good (you can see some of my photo contest entries for an idea of what it does...even with a horrible photographer using it ). I usually leave the digital zoom off and stick with the optical zoom. I'm happy with it as a point-and-shoot, and especially like the size (I actually use it because I can slip it in my pocket or purse when I'm heading out somewhere, so I have it when I want it...anything bigger and I'd tend to leave it home when I don't want to be lugging a camera around). I think the point-and-shoot camera that Zz uses is the 7MP version of the same camera, so again, for comparison, you can look at some of his entries in the photo contests and see what the photo quality is like (those are good representations since they aren't Photoshopped to enhance anything)...and he's certainly a better photographer than me.

Edit: As for what's better about the more expensive ones, look at larkspur's photo entries. That's what you can do with a really fancy, expensive camera...if you know how to use it right (it would be wasted on me). If you're mostly interested in just taking snapshots for the sake of memories, and not so much for artistic photography, even 8MP is more than you need. You need the fancier cameras if you want the kinds of optics that will give you good resolution and good depth of field for the artistic shots that you might want to enlarge to poster size to frame and hang. Most people don't need that.

Gokul43201

Check these out too:
Nikon Coolpix P50
Nikon Coolpix S550

binzing

Nikon, Canon, and Olympus would be my top three, not particularly in any order.

I've always really liked the Canon Elph series.

Cyrus

That things huge. I don't want a camera that big.... I want something that fits inside my pocket.

Cyrus

The first one is too big, but the second one is about right in size.

Cyrus

My friend she has this small pocket camera that takes amazing pictures but I dont remember the name of it and I lost contact with her. I'll have to hunt her down and ask her.

I dont want a big professional NIKON camera with optional telescopes. A bunch of the grad students have these cameras and one is a professional photographer. I asked him once, but he doesnt know anything about these small cameras. Everything he uses is 1k and up pro stuff.

montoyas7940

Maybe Kodak easyshare.

It is small, inexpensive and takes pretty good pic's.

Gokul43201

If you can go a little over $200, you must check out the Canon SD870.

scorpa

I have a Canon Powershot SD600 and I love it, it is a fun little camera and is quite small. I'm no pro photographer and it suits me well. It has a really cool feature where you can zoom in on a color in the scene you are going to photograph, select it, and then that is the only color that will show up, everything else will be black and white. I have some really cool pictures taken with that eg a picture of a friend where everything is black and white except their red shirt, or my harley in bright yellow against a bw background.

Cyrus

Yeah, that's the kind of features I'd like to have. I'm willing to spend more than $200.00 if the price justifies it. In other words, if I pay 30 bucks more, im getting a WAY better camera.

scorpa

My camera was around 250 or so I believe.

Gokul43201

Panasonic Lumix DMC - this is a really neat camera. It has an amazing Leica 28mm - 280mm lens, that you are not likely to find on anything else in this range. I've been thinking it was in the mid-300 buck range, but just found a great price at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-.../dp/B0011Z6D9U